Shortened season doesn’t stop concerned son from taking his best buck ever.
While I live in Louisville, Kentucky, I hunt in Crawford County, Indiana. Two weeks before gun season, my work and hunting partner, my dad, had a massive heart attack.
We rushed him to the ER, where the doctor informed us that he needed to have open heart surgery. All Dad was worried about was my deer hunting, but the only thing on my mind was him.
I planned to postpone the trip to the Indiana until Dad informed me that if I postponed my trip, he was going to postpone his surgery.
“I’m 30 years old and haven’t missed a deer season in 22 years of hunting,” I said. “I can afford to miss this one.”
He still wouldn’t give in, so I made an agreement that if he would go through with the procedure, I would head out to the woods after he was done.
The surgery went well, so I packed up and got ready to go hunting. Then, as I was driving through the night, all I could think about was that I should be home with my father. It was a painful mental struggle between doing what I promised him and what I felt was right.
I saw a few small does on opening morning, but I just couldn’t focus on the hunt. A severe snow storm rolled in the next day, giving me the perfect excuse to head home.
I spent the next few weeks with Dad, and maybe because everything was going well, my mind often drifted to the woods.
My next day off of work wasn’t until Thanksgiving. For some odd reason, I woke up at 4 a.m. Since I was already awake, I jumped up and took off for the woods.
I climbed in the tree at daybreak, but I didn’t see much. I had planned to call it an early morning because of the holiday, so around 10 a.m. I got my gear together, lowered my muzzleloader to the ground and stood up to go.
Just then I saw a deer move about 80 yards out. I figured since it was my last day to hunt, I might as well put some meat in the freezer.
I quickly pulled the gun back up, found the deer in my sights and pulled the trigger. When the smoke cleared, I saw the deer running hard, and then I heard a crash. It sounded like a car fell off of a cliff!
I tracked it for about 150 yards, and as I walked up to it, I noticed that it was a buck. The closer I got, the bigger the antlers got.
When I finally I got to him, I was amazed to realize I had just taken a 10-pointer. My next thought was that Dad wasn’t there to experience it with me.
It just goes to show that no matter how down and out you think you are, God can step in and send you a special reward.
Dad is doing great, and I have the biggest buck of my life at the taxidermist. We nicknamed the buck Heart Attack and can’t wait for next year to get back out in the woods together.